The Trades and Immigration … The big, unpleasant picture

It is common ground that:

• Canada’s trades education process does not come close to meeting the needs of

trades employers. Worse, there is no private or public sector will to improve our

pathetic trades education process

•  Europe’s trades education process is the best on the planet

•  Ontario subsidizes its trades deficit by importing, and then exploiting, illegal

European trades workers. Ontario has an illegal worker population of 500,000.

Most of the illegal trades workers are from Europe. Most of the rest have no skills.
Ontario’s reliance on foreign trades workers has been going on since the Loyalists

crossed the Niagara River.

The question now is whether Ontario’s economy can sustain:

• Europe’s own drive to welcome immigrants

•  Europe’s open door policy to other Europeans

•  Canada’s inability to establish either a rationale trades education or a trades

immigration policy

In a denial of what is happening in Europe and other industrialized societies, Ontario has

planted its policy head firmly in the cement of ill-informed smugness. This arrogance is

based on a misreading of Europe’s immigration and political unity debate. Canadians

generally believe that Europe is falling apart. We also are led to believe that alleged

European instability will fuel a never ending supply of qualified European trades workers

for Canada.

A little perspective may help.

Ontario has an area of 412,000 square miles.

Ontario has a population of around 13,000,000

On a per capita basis, one in every 26 Ontarians is an illegal.

Clearly, we in Ontario know little about training our own people to build the infrastructure

required to bring wealth to our God given geography. We figure that it is our birth right to

pimp foreign trades workers as they escape foreign misery from industrially superior

jurisdictions.



One in every 350 Europeans is illegal.



Combined, the UK, Italy, Germany Belgium, Denmark and Holland come in at 410,000

square miles.

But what if the pimping days are over?

Combined, the UK, Italy, Germany Belgium, Denmark and Holland population comes in at

235,000,000.

Clearly, Europeans know a thing or two about creating wealth by maximizing human

capital. Things such as political disputes, Brexit’s, refugee invasions etc are bumps in the

road for a continent which now has an integrated economy. Brexit and the sons of Brexit

are important politically, not industrially.

The German dominated juggernaut will not tolerate a breakdown in the free movement of

skilled labour. These people play hard ball.

Despite all the talk about Canada benefitting from problems in the UK, Italy, Germany

Belgium, Denmark and Holland, the facts are that:

• These European counties have aging work forces and low birth rates. They have

invested heavily in their skilled workers. Their industries are booming. When one

country slows down, the other pick up the slack and staff. Collectively, they will

not give up their skilled workers to Canada.

•  Either combined or individually, these European countries, on a per capita basis

have only a fraction of Ontario’s illegals. They acknowledge their problem and they

deal with it by absorbing quality illegals and refugees. We pretend that our illegals

do not exist. We rip them off and then kick them out

•  Their foreign worker “problem” includes more fellow skilled Europeans than

“outsiders” from Africa and Asia. Our problem is skilled Europeans who are

already established

•  Free movement of European labour within Europe is here to stay

•  Canada does not offer economic benefit for any European tradesperson

•  It is childish to assume that any qualified European trades worker will come to

Canada for job or financial security

•  European trades workers come to Canada for personal and lifestyle reasons. This

source will dry up as Canada’s private sector employers and public sector

bureaucrats suck the blood out of the few Europeans brave enough to tolerate our

nonsense

Looking forward

1. Trades school will not be built

2. Apprentice programs will continue to be band aids

3. Qualified trades workers from any part of the world, and especially Europe, will dry up

4. Canada will be stuck with unemployable farm workers turned labourers, mostly from

Asia, who will pay for phony resumes. They will be facilitated by the usual consulting

suspects who will arrange phony jobs for phony trades immigrants. We’ve been down this

path before with entrepreneurs, investors, spouses, refugees etc. Our administrators will

simply collapse in the face of the immigration industry

5. Trades costs will go up. Infrastructure will collapse

6. The phony trades immigrants will suck up whatever will be left of the social and health

services safety net

Conclusion

Game over

Richard Boraks, June 20 2016